Facts and Figures.

Thursday 3rd July.

Another restful day between tidying up inside the motorhome then a short trip to both the Hibiscus shopping centre and Casuarina to pick up a few food items.

Happy hour at 5:00pm where we said farewell to most of the people we have come to know since being here at Lee Point Resort. Packed up all the external items such as table, chairs, clothes line etc as well as rolling up the awning. This will leave very little to do in the morning prior to our departure.

Before we leave Darwin here are a few interesting facts and figures concerning the Northern Territory and Darwin.

*****************************************************************************

The population of the Northern Territory at the 2011 Australian census was 211,945. The Territory's population represents 1% of the total population of Australia.

The Northern Territory's population is the youngest in Australia and has the largest proportion (23.2%) under 15 years of age and the smallest proportion (5.7%) aged 65 and over. The median age of residents of the Northern Territory is 31 years, six years younger than the national median age.

More than 54% of Territorians live in Darwin.

Less than half of the territory's population live in the rural Northern Territory.

Darwin 124,760. Palmerston. 30,005.  Alice Springs. 27,877.

Katherine 10,309.   Nhulunbuy. 5,001.   Tennant Creek. 3,558.  

Wad eye 2,394.   Jabiru. 1,327

Indigenous Australians own some 49% of the land.

The Northern Territory has two distinctive climate zones.

The northern end, including Darwin, has a tropical climate with high humidity and two seasons, the wet (October to April) and dry season (May to September). During the dry season nearly every day is warm and sunny, and afternoon humidity averages around 30%. There is very little rainfall between May and September. In the coolest months of June and July, the daily minimum temperature may dip as low as 14 °C (57 °F), but very rarely lower, and frost has never been recorded.

The wet season is associated with tropical cyclones and monsoon rains. The majority of rainfall occurs between December and March (the southern hemisphere summer), when thunderstorms are common and afternoon relative humidity averages over 70% during the wettest months. On average more than 1,570 mm (62 in) of rain falls in the north. Rainfall is highest in north-west coastal areas, where rainfall averages from 1,800–2,100mm (72–84 in).

The central region is the desert centre of the country, which includes Alice Springs and Ayers Rock, and is semi-arid with little rain usually falling during the hottest months from October to March. Central Australia receives less than 250 mm (9.8 in) of rain per year.

The Bombing of Darwin, also known as the Battle of Darwin on 19 February 1942 was both the first and the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. On this day, 242 Japanese aircraft attacked ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasions of Timor and Java. The town was only lightly defended and the Japanese inflicted heavy losses upon the Allied forces at little cost to themselves. The urban areas of Darwin also suffered some damage from the raids and there were a number of civilian casualties.

After the massive 19 February 1942 Japanese raid, the Northern Territory and parts of Western Australia's north were bombed 62 more times between 4 March 1942 and 12 November 1943. One of the heaviest attacks took place on 16 June 1942 when a large Japanese force set fire to the oil fuel tanks around the harbour and inflicted severe damage to the vacant barracks, stores and railway yards. The Allied navies largely abandoned the naval base at Darwin after the initial 19 February attack, dispersing most of their forces to Brisbane, Fremantle, and other smaller seaports. Conversely, Allied air commanders launched a major build-up in the Darwin area, building more airfields and deploying many squadrons.

The four Imperial Japanese Aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū, and Sōryū) that participated in the Bombing of Darwin were later sunk during the Battle of Midway in June 1942.

****************************************************************************